Tips: This is pretty and festive-looking, and, depending
upon how you make it, can be a good project for little kitchen elves
at holiday time. There are two ways to go here: you can use supermarket
chocolate and candy canes, or, for a more adult or sophisticated
crowd, use best-quality chocolate and better candy canes. Where
to find the latter? I order my candy canes from Hammond’s
in Colorado (www.hammondscandies.com); they’re large, beautiful,
and quite pepperminty. Conveniently, however, each Hammond’s
candy cane weighs in at 2 ounces, so you needn’t weigh or
measure them; just use two for each batch of this. To crush candy
canes, I break them up while they’re still in their wrappers
by whacking them on a table several times. Afterwards, unwrap them,
and place the pieces in a resealable one-gallon plastic bag. Close
the bag, forcing out any air. Enclose this bag in another gallon
bag and seal the second bag, pressing out any air. Place bags on
a table or flat work surface. Whack the candy cane chunks with a
rolling pin or cooking pot until most pieces are no larger than
pea-sized (you’ll have a few larger pieces and many smaller;
you’ll also have some pink dust, all of which are OK).

The bark should be stored airtight in the refrigerator and brought
to room temperature just before serving; it also freezes nicely
on a short-term basis (thaw and store in the fridge). If it is not
stored airtight, the crushed candy canes may pick up moisture from
the refrigerator and become soggy. This would be a nice gift, and
I’m sure you can substitute milk chocolate for the dark chocolate
if you wish. Incidentally, I can make a batch of this in less time
than I can explain how to do it.

Yield:1-1/2 pounds

Ingredients:

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped or as chips

10 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped or as chips

4 ounces candy canes, crushed

Method:

Line a 15 by 10 by 1 inch pan with two lengths of aluminum foil;
there should be enough foil so that the entire inside of the pan
is lined. Fold any overhanging foil back against the outside of
the pan. Place the semisweet chocolate in one medium microwaveable
bowl and the white chocolate in another.

Heat the semisweet chocolate in the microwave at medium (50%) power
for one minute. Remove from microwave; stir thoroughly (about one
minute). Microwave at 50% (medium) power for additional shorter
intervals, stirring thoroughly after each, just until chocolate
is melted and smooth. Set aside at room temperature. Repeat melting
instructions with white chocolate.

Pour the melted semisweet chocolate in a thin stream onto the bottom
of the lined pan, moving the bowl around as you do so. Try to keep
the chocolate about one-half inch away from all of the edges (if
you can’t, it’s no big deal; doing so just makes handling
the finished product a little bit easier). The melted semisweet
chocolate won’t cover the entire bottom of the pan, but that’s
OK; just get as large an area covered as you reasonably can. Repeat
the pouring with the melted white chocolate, again covering as large
an area as possible and trying to stay about a half-inch away from
all edges.

Using a toothpick or flat knife, marble the chocolates together,
trying to fill in any gaps so that you have one layer of two types
of chocolate that covers the bottom of the lined pan (except for
that half-inch on all the edges). Don’t marble so much that
the two chocolates become blended together, and don’t dig
into the foil lining the pan! Sprinkle the crushed candy canes all
over the layer of melted chocolate, as evenly as possible.

Tear off a single sheet of foil about the length of the 15 by 10
pan. Place it directly on top of the candy canes you’ve sprinkled
on the chocolate. Gently press down on the foil sheet to firmly
embed the crushed candy canes in the chocolate layer. Leave the
foil sheet on top of the bark, and refrigerate the whole thing for
about 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top sheet of foil
should easily peel off the bark. If it doesn’t, refrigerate
the bark about 10 minutes longer, then try again.

Once the top sheet of foil is peeled off, quickly break the bark
into small pieces (I wear plastic gloves to do this, as the heat
of your hands can melt the candy if you don’t work quickly
enough). Place the bark pieces in an airtight storage container,
and refrigerate until about 10 to 15 minutes before serving (you
can also serve the bark cold from the fridge).